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COMBATING EBOLA IN WEST AFRICA:

THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Serial No. 113–240

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development .............................................................................................................. 7

The Honorable Bisa Williams, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African 

Affairs, U.S. Department of State ...................................................................... 17

The Honorable Michael D. Lumpkin, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, U.S. Department of Defense ...... 29

Major General James Lariviere, USMC, Deputy Director for Politico-Military 

Affairs (Africa), Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Department of Defense ................ 50

Major General Nadja Y. West, USA, Joint Staff Surgeon, Joint Chiefs of 

Staff, U.S. Department of Defense ..................................................................... 51

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Rajiv Shah: Prepared statement .................................................. 10

The Honorable Bisa Williams: Prepared statement ............................................. 20

The Honorable Michael D. Lumpkin: Prepared statement .................................. 31

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 70

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 71

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the 

Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 73

Question submitted for the record to the Honorable Rajiv Shah from the 

Honorable Ami Bera, a Representative in Congress from the State of California ..................................................................................................................... 75

(1)

COMBATING EBOLA IN WEST AFRICA:

THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:11 a.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ed Royce (chairman of 

the committee) presiding. 

Chairman ROYCE. The committee will come to order. We will ask 

all the members to take their seats. 

We have had Ebola crises in the past. We have seen this situation in the Philippines, in Congo, Uganda, but never have we seen 

it on the scale, with the reach that this current epidemic has in 

Guinea and Liberia and in Sierra Leone. There are 14,000 cases on 

record, there are 5,000 people who have died, there are thousands 

of children at this time who have been orphaned, and these numbers are very shocking, and the numbers are growing. 

What has worked in the past to block Ebola, obviously, is breaking the chain of transmission. But without us doing that, Ebola will 

continue to spill across borders, and economies will be devastated 

in Africa. Governments will fail. Tens of thousands will die. And 

that is no exaggeration, and that means that this isn’t just a problem for west Africa, but a problem with far-reaching health and 

economic and security consequences for the globe. 

And I would like to recognize Chairman Smith for convening an 

emergency hearing we held together during the African summit, 

African Leaders Summit in August, despite concerns by the administration that it would be a distraction. President Sirleaf, Ellen 

Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, called to thank the committee for standing by Liberia. 

Chairman Smith, who has been working closely with our ranking 

member, Karen Bass, on that subcommittee, will convene a hearing 

next week with the key nongovernmental organizations engaged in 

the response. 

Unfortunately, we are paying the price of early failures. The 

World Health Organization, which is the U.N. agency charged with 

leading the response to health emergencies, downplayed the crisis. 

Inept country office directors ignored warnings by Doctors Without 

Borders. As a matter of fact, they wrote a rebuttal to the concern 

raised by Doctors Without Borders. They refused assistance early 

on from the Centers for Disease Control and from USAID, and they 

blocked entry for teams of experts. By the time that the World 

2

Health Organization finally sounded the alarm on August 8th, the 

outbreak was out of control. 

Of course, the United States has generously provided support to 

the WHO. This was a failure of policy, not resources. Our director 

of the Centers for Disease Control serves on WHO’s executive 

board, and we need to be pushing to reform the organization. Improving accountability would be a very good place to start, and having country directors that are not cronies but, in fact, are ready to 

stand up and deal with the problem instead of trying to deny it, 

is a very good place to start. 

In contrast to the WHO’s failures, USAID immediately activated 

a disaster assistance response team. It immediately got people to 

the region. And, today, USAID, supported by the Department of 

Defense and CDC, is leading a robust disaster response. As we will 

hear from Administrator Shah, who contacted myself and Mr. 

Engel after his trip to each of these countries, treatment units are 

being opened; lab capacity is being expanded; medical workers are 

being trained; and burial teams are working to reduce transmission. 

Reports from Liberia indicate that this is having an impact. 

None of this could have been done without the commitment and 

sacrifice of the brave men and women of the doctors and nurses 

and civilians, both civilian and uniformed personnel, in all of this 

who have answered the call for help. 

But we cannot afford to let up, and we cannot afford to do this 

alone. Containment will fail in the absence of a robust international effort. Other donors and the U.N. need to step up, just as 

we are stepping up. They need to step up particularly in Guinea. 

The WHO needs to be part of the solution, rather than a hindrance. And our Embassies need to put in place additional prudent 

containment measures that will add a layer of protection while not 

impeding the Ebola response, including the temporary suspension 

of visas for non-U.S. nationals coming from the region. 

We look forward to learning more about the international efforts 

to help contain the epidemic at its source and evaluating the administration’s request for additional resources in this fight to address one of the most pressing health emergencies of our time. 

And I now turn to our ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel of New 

York, for any opening remarks he might have. 

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important 

hearing. Let me say it was good spending time with you this past 

week. 

And to our witnesses, thank you for your service and for your 

testimony here today. I want to single out Rajiv Shah, the Administrator of USAID, with whom I have worked closely during the 

past several years. 

We appreciate your efforts, Administrator Shah, and the efforts 

of all the good people who are testifying here today. 

Thank you, Ambassador Williams and the others, thank you so 

much. 

Since our Africa and Global Health Subcommittee held a hearing 

on Ebola in September, the number of cases has nearly tripled. The 

World Health Organization is reporting over 14,000 Ebola cases as 

of November 12, 2014, and a total of 5,147 people have died. The 

3

United States has now seen the implications of this outbreak here 

at home. Several heroic healthcare workers who gave their time 

and skills to treat Ebola patients in west Africa have contracted 

the disease and have been successfully treated here in the United 

States. We are grateful for their selflessness and for their sacrifices. Just as the doctors volunteering to help combat Ebola overseas deserve our recognition, so do our health workers and border 

and transportation officials who are working tirelessly to prevent 

an outbreak in the U.S. 

As a New Yorker, let me say how proud I am of the staff of Bellevue Hospital and all of the New York public health officials who 

were involved in successfully treating Dr. Craig Spencer, who was 

released on Tuesday Ebola free. No matter how diligent we are 

here at home, there is always a chance of Ebola reaching our 

shores as long as the disease is thriving in west Africa. To prevent 

this from happening, we need to stamp out Ebola at its source. 

Most importantly, this Ebola outbreak is causing tremendous suffering. Our country has a proud tradition of stepping up in the 

event of a major crisis, and that should continue. That is why I 

support the strong commitment the U.S. has made to combating 

and eradicating this outbreak in west Africa. 

The United States has been a leader in the response to Ebola, particularly in Liberia. To date, more than $414 million has been 

disbursed. Our soldiers are building treatment facilities across the 

country, a high quality 25-bed hospital for healthcare workers who 

contract Ebola, and providing vital air and logistical support. The 

CDC has helped establish laboratories that reduce the time it takes 

to get an accurate diagnosis from days to mere hours. USAID is 

supporting more than 50 burial teams and more than 2,200 workers, who are doing vital contracting work. 

As I have said, the U.S. cannot meet this challenge alone. Ebola 

is a global challenge, requiring a global response. Fortunately, 

international efforts to control the epidemic in Liberia, Sierra 

Leone, and Guinea have increased, both in terms of financial support and on-the-ground assistance. Our partners in Europe and 

Asia have stepped up their commitment to the region. NGOs and 

humanitarian organizations, which shouldered most of the burden 

in fighting this epidemic for months, now have more robust and 

sustained support from donor countries. 

However, despite these positive signs, much work remains before 

this epidemic is under control, and unfortunately, the significant financial commitments we have already made will not be enough to 

control this outbreak, but we cannot become complacent. All it 

takes is one unmonitored and untreated Ebola patient to cause another flare up. 

We have all seen the emergency funding request that the administration sent to Congress on November 5th. Given the dire humanitarian impact Ebola is having on west Africa and the global health 

threat this disease poses, I strongly support this request. Like my 

colleagues, I would like to get more details from our witnesses: 

How will this funding be used? Why is it critical not only for the 

Ebola crisis but for our campaign to respond to emergencies globally? I hope we can shed a little more light on those issues, but 

Congress should quickly approve this request so that our efforts to 

4

end this outbreak aren’t derailed due to a lack of financial resources. 

Finally, while controlling the epidemic is our first objective, we 

cannot lose sight of the fact that the three most heavily affected 

west African countries have significant long-term needs for assistance. The World Bank estimates that the regional financial impact 

could reach $32.6 billion by the end of just 2015. This would be catastrophic for a region just getting back on its feet after a prolonged 

period of conflict. So while the international response must be 

swift, it must also be sustained. 

I also want to mention my gratitude and appreciation for all of 

our U.S. Government personnel in the region, the men and women 

who represent and support our missions abroad in west Africa. I 

thank the military who are here. This is a challenging time for everyone involved, and we appreciate all of their hard work in dealing with this crisis. I know how busy all of our witnesses are, and 

I appreciate the time that all of you are taking to give us this valuable update. 

So, Mr. Chairman, thank you again for convening this hearing 

and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you. 

And I will say to the committee, I agree with Mr. Engel’s assessment here. 

Let’s go to Chairman Chris Smith, chairman of the Africa Subcommittee and Global Health. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for putting together this very important and timely hearing on the Ebola crisis, 

and I want to thank our distinguished witnesses for their extraordinary efforts to combat this disease and help the victims and their 

families. 

I especially want to thank Dr. Shah for the work the USAID is 

doing and for the interest he has taken personally, the leadership 

he has provided. It has been herculean. 

The unprecedented west African Ebola epidemic has not only 

killed more than 5,000 people with nearly 13,000 known to be infected, and that is probably a significant underestimation, it has 

also skewed the planning for how to deal with this outbreak. As we 

all know, in the past Ebola outbreaks have occurred in isolated 

areas that were much easier to contain. In this instance, the disease quickly spread from a rural area to an international trading 

center and people from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone took the 

disease home with them. 

This disease, in early stages appears to do less. It is not recognized as quickly than other diseases, such as malaria, which means 

initial healthcare workers have been unprepared for the deadly nature of the disease that they have been asked to treat. This has 

meant that too many healthcare workers, national and international, have been at risk in treating patients who themselves 

may not have known that they had Ebola. Hundreds of healthcare 

workers have been infected, many have died, including some of the 

top medical personnel in the three affected countries. 

What we found quickly was that the healthcare systems in these 

countries, despite heavy investment by the U.S. and other donors, 

remained quite weak. As it happens, these are countries coming 

5

out of very divisive conflicts or they experience serious political divisions. Consequently, citizens have not been widely prepared to 

accept recommendations from their own governments. For quite 

some time, many people in all three countries would not accept 

that the Ebola epidemic was even real. Even now it is believed 

that, despite the prevalence of burial teams throughout Liberia, for 

example, some families are reluctant to identify their suffering and 

dead loved ones for safe burials, which places family members at 

grave risk because they often touch the body and show great affection for the recently deceased. The porous borders of these countries have allowed people to cross between countries at will. This 

has led to problems of people obviously carrying the disease with 

them. 

I want to announce today the introduction of a bill. We have 

been working very closely with Chairman Royce on this as well as 

the ranking member, Karen Bass, called the Ebola Emergency Response Act. We have also shared it with the administration, trying 

to get a best practices bill moving that would affect the three countries but also the total response. This includes recruiting and training of healthcare personnel; establishing fully functional treatment 

centers; conducting education campaigns among populations in affected areas; and developing diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. 

It confirms U.S. policy in the anti-Ebola fight and provides necessary authorities for the administration to continue or expand anticipated actions in this regard. The bill also encourages U.S. collaboration with other donors to mitigate the risk of economic collapse and civil unrest in the three affected countries. And we look 

forward to input from all members on this important bill, and 

again, I want to thank my friends on the other side of the aisle for 

working so closely on its creation. 

I yield back, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. 

Ranking member Karen Bass of Los Angeles, ranking member on 

this Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, for 3 minutes. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, 

and Chairman Smith, as always for your leadership on this important issue and for calling today’s hearing. I also want to thank Dr. 

Shah and the other members of the panel today, not just for taking 

the time for your testimony but for your aggressive response and 

leadership on this issue. I look forward to getting updates directly 

from you today on how your agencies and organizations continue 

to combat this deadly outbreak, what trends you are seeing, both 

positive and negative, and what additional support is needed as 

you coordinate with governments of impacted countries and the 

international community. 

We all know this crisis has been the largest and most widespread 

outbreak of the disease in history, creating a great burden on the 

governments and bringing a greater awareness to the international 

community about global health security. Striking west Africa for 

the first time, Ebola quickly overwhelmed the extremely limited 

healthcare systems of these nations, and quickly spun out of control. Since the beginning of the outbreak, the United States has 

made a significant and sustained effort, and all of what we are 

doing was described by Ranking Member Engel. 

6

The question that I have that hopefully the panel will address 

is, with all of the infrastructure that we are putting in place from 

the treatment centers, training healthcare workers, burial teams, 

all of that, after we are past this—and I believe we will get past 

it—will any of it be left in place? Because I think that what we 

have all learned from this outbreak is the fact that many of the 

countries, the reason why it has been so bad is because they lacked 

a healthcare infrastructure. So do we take out of this tragedy and 

see an opportunity to begin to address this in the long term? 

I think that Ebola has shown us that this isn’t about charity, but 

that a health care crisis in one part of the world can directly affect 

us. And I am also particularly concerned about the fragile governments and a breakdown in the rule of law. 

On the African side, African business leaders pledged to help the 

African Union train and deploy healthcare workers. And I know 

the African Development Bank has provided over $44 million to 

date to assist the global efforts. I understand that more than 2,000 

healthcare workers have been pledged from African countries to 

help fight the outbreak. I know that the administration has asked Congress for over $6 

billion in emergency funds in order to sustain the progress that has 

been made and to ensure an end to this crisis. I believe that this 

request will expand assistance to continue to contain the epidemic 

and safeguard the American public from further spread of the disease. 

I look forward to your testimonies, and I am interested in hearing from all of you about what more Congress can do to help you 

in your efforts to combat the disease. Thank you very much. I yield 

back. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you. 

We begin this morning, our first witness will be Dr. Rajiv Shah. 

He is the 16th Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International 

Development, and previously he served as Under Secretary of Research, Education, and Economics at USAID and as chief scientist 

at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And we welcome him back 

to the committee. 

Ambassador Bisa Williams is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of 

the Bureau of African Affairs, and previously she served as U.S. 

Ambassador to the Republic of Niger from 2010 to 2013. 

Mr. Michael Lumpkin is currently the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Major General James Lariviere is the Deputy Director for Political Military Affairs for Africa for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Previously he worked on Capitol Hill as a military legislative assistant, a professional staff member with the House Armed Services 

Committee, and as both staff director and minority staff director of 

the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. 

Major General Nadja West is the Joint Staff Surgeon. She serves 

as the Chief Medical Adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs 

of Staff and coordinates all issues related to health services, including operational medicine, force health protection, and readiness 

among the combatant commands. 

7

And Mr. Lumpkin will give oral testimony on behalf of the Department of Defense. Major General Lariviere and Major General 

West are available to answer our members’ questions here today. 

And, without objection, the witnesses’ full prepared statements 

will be made a part of the record. Members will have 5 calendar 

days to submit any statements or questions or any extraneous material for the record. 

And so we go now to Dr. Rajiv Shah. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RAJIV SHAH, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, 

and members of the committee. Mr. Chairman, I want to recognize 

and thank you for your leadership on behalf of America’s efforts to 

promote our national security and economic prosperity through developmental and humanitarian investments made all around the 

world, particularly at times of crisis and recognize the historic role 

you have played in helping support these efforts and reform, in 

particular the way we provide food assistance around the world. 

Thank you, Congressman Engel, for your unwavering leadership 

and support and friendship, and I value the support you have offered for our global health efforts in this crisis but also all around 

the world. 

And special recognition, of course for Representatives Smith and 

Bass for your extraordinary and consistent leadership in global 

health for so many years, which we draw upon now as we face this 

crisis. 

As the chairman noted, today we face the largest and most protracted Ebola epidemic in our history, with more than 14,000 infected and more than 5,000 already deceased. I have had a chance 

to visit these countries and meet those who have been affected. 

And I can tell you that the most tragic part of the Ebola crisis is 

that it strikes those who offer the most care and the most love to 

those who are affected, a mother who holds a sick child or a son 

or daughter who kisses a deceased parent. 

In Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, we are facing a crisis of 

epidemic proportions, and the President has directed us to lead a 

whole-of-government response in west Africa that can help ensure 

America’s security and safety from this tragic disease. I am proud 

here to be with members of our team across the interagency who 

have offered extraordinarily important leadership. You will hear 

from Assistant Secretary Lumpkin about the really herculean efforts the military has taken, and I hope he will share with you how 

important it has been to have, amongst other things, the Navy labs 

in place, greatly accelerating the time it takes to do diagnostics, 

from 7 or 8 days down to 5 or 6 hours, thus allowing us to accelerate the performance of the response. You will hear from Deputy 

Assistant Secretary Williams about the more than $800 million in 

commitments that our State Department has helped to encourage 

from other countries so that the United States is not, in fact, pursuing this effort alone. And while you won’t hear today from the 

Centers for Disease Control and Health and Human Services, I can 

tell you that on the ground, our teams operate in an absolutely integrated manner, and in fact, our disaster assistance response 

8

team, which is leading the effort, is co-led; the deputy director of 

that team is a member of the Centers for Disease Control. 

President Obama is requesting $6.18 billion in emergency funding to enhance our efforts to urgently address this crisis right now 

and for the coming year. These resources are essential to rapidly 

scaling up activities to control the outbreak at its source, to support recovery in west Africa in health and agriculture and food and 

other sectors of work to prevent civil unrest and governance collapse, and to strengthen global health security in the region, so, as 

we just saw yesterday, cases appearing in Mali don’t get beyond 

that area and are effectively controlled. 

I would like to share with you just a few quick observations from 

my trip. In Liberia, I had a chance both to meet first responders 

and to see the extraordinary results of American investment and 

effort. As just one example, the 65 burial teams that we now have 

up and running have tackled this crisis at its most aggressive point 

of transmission. Seventy percent of all cases get transmitted 

through the bodies and the handling of the bodies of the deceased. 

Today, more than 95 percent of dead bodies are disposed of in a 

dignified manner, but in a safe manner with the proper burial 

team handling the disposal of that body. That is just one example, 

but that has clearly helped to bring down the number of new cases 

so that today we believe the transmission rate has been greatly reduced in Liberia. 

In Sierra Leone, I had a chance to visit trainers who are training 

hundreds of healthcare workers, mostly African and mostly local, 

in effective protective equipment and performance so they can be 

on the front lines of the response. Together with the World Health 

Organization and other countries, we will in fact train thousands 

of local healthcare workers who are on the frontline of taking on 

risk and who will be the legacy we leave behind so that there is, 

in fact, to answer the Congresswoman’s question, a legacy of support for global health efforts throughout the region. 

And, in Guinea, although they have the fewest number of cases 

out of the three, perhaps current active cases of 500 to 600, we are 

working aggressively to scale up efforts in the difficult to reach forest region, difficult to reach rural community, where most of these 

cases currently exist. 

Finally, I just want to highlight that in order to be effective in 

this response, we have had to do some things very differently 

across our team. First, we have had to invest in real innovation 

and science, and just in the next 2 days, we will be reviewing proposals for new protective suits that can help reduce the infection 

risk when health workers take them off and put them on because 

the current protective equipment is not designed for tropical disease control. We are sending a real time data team that has already gotten more than 8500 ruggedized android devices, handheld devices so we can get better real-time data on where the cases 

are and respond even more quickly and rapidly to meeting those 

needs. And we are using our efforts in agriculture and food in particular to make sure that the backbone of the rural economy in all 

three countries, which is agriculture based, can be up and running 

again as soon as possible, using our Feed the Future program to 

help accelerate performance in that sector. 

9

These efforts taken together and led by our disaster assistance 

response team leader, Bill Berger, on the ground in Monrovia, is 

making a tremendous difference at changing the path of this epidemic. If we continue to provide support at the level the President 

is requesting, we believe we can overcome this crisis by tackling it 

at its source. 

And I want to thank everyone on the committee for your ongoing 

support of the risks and the leadership being shown by our teams 

in country every single day. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Administrator Shah. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Shah follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. We now go to Ambassador Williams. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE BISA WILLIAMS, DEPUTY 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Royce. 

Ranking Member Engel, and distinguished members of the committee. I thank you for this opportunity to testify today regarding 

the Department of State’s role in the U.S. whole-of-government response to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. 

The ongoing Ebola epidemic in west Africa has already resulted 

in over 14,000 infected and nearly 5,500 deaths. While Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea have borne the brunt of this tragic epidemic, we have also seen isolated cases in Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, 

Spain, and the United States. This reminds us that Ebola can be 

a threat anywhere until we end the epidemic at its source in west 

Africa. 

The Ebola epidemic has inflicted human, economic, and social 

costs across the affected countries in west Africa and has stretched 

existing health systems to the breaking point. Beyond the 

epidemic’s immediate effects, fewer children are being vaccinated; 

an increasing number of people lack adequate food; an increasing 

number of orphans require care; and economies have been badly 

damaged. All this has occurred against the backdrop of countries 

still recovering from civil war. In short, the Ebola epidemic is not 

only a health crisis; it is a potential global security crisis. 

The United States Government has stepped forward as a global 

leader to stamp out this scourge at its source. However, a challenge 

of this magnitude requires global cooperation. The Department of 

State therefore plays a critical role in mobilizing international resources and coordinating with partner states, regional organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the United Nations to 

build capacity in the affected countries and beyond to respond to 

this crisis. 

In this respect, we are working particularly closely with Dr. 

David Nabarro, the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy on 

Ebola, and the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response or 

UNMEER to identify resource shortfalls and those international 

donors best placed to contribute needed financial support, manpower, and in-kind contributions. The U.N. has sounded a call for 

$1.5 billion to finance the U.N. response to the epidemic. And the 

State Department continues to conduct intensive bilateral and multilateral outreach to urge countries to contribute to the U.N. funding appeal. 

In September, we launched a broad outreach strategy at the U.N. 

General Assembly that raised global awareness of the emergency 

and emphasized the high priority the United States places on addressing it. In mid October, we followed up with targeted outreach 

calls from the President, Secretary Kerry, Secretary Burwell, CDC 

Director Dr. Frieden, National Security Adviser Rice, and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Power to their counterparts in a subset of key 

donor countries, and it worked. Since October 10th, those countries 

have pledged an additional $793.2 million to the global Ebola response in addition to significant nonmonetary contributions and biVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:09 Feb 23, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Z:\WORK\_FULL\111314\91450 SHIRL
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lateral contributions approaching $1 billion. Those numbers continue to grow. 

We are heartened by this growing support of countries around 

the globe, from tiny Timor-Leste to giant China. Despite these 

gains, we know that the fight is far from over and that much more 

must be done. As the President continues to say, we, the global 

community, need to do more and do it faster. Therefore, we will 

continue to push forward over the coming months. This means reinforcing our message at major multilateral events, including the 

summits of the G20, APEC, ASEAN, and the EAS, to drive action 

and seed contributions from a larger pool of donors. We are also 

looking at our partners in the Middle East as well as rising global 

economic powers, such as India, Indonesia, and Brazil, to do more. 

We are working with the African Union to bring their pledge of 

healthcare workers to the affected countries, matching needs on the 

ground with the skills and numbers of their volunteers. We support 

the African community’s leadership in this response. 

Healthcare workers are the linchpin of the fight against Ebola, 

and recruiting these incredible heroes and removing disincentives 

for them to volunteer are a key facet of our outreach. So we are 

working with UNMEER, the World Bank, and our partner governments to provide the logistical support these volunteers require, as 

well as the laboratory capacity, airlift resources, and personal protective equipment they need to operate Ebola treatment units and 

other care centers. 

I would like to turn now to our work with the private sector in 

this response. The State Department has focused on three aspects 

of private sector mobilization, urging businesses to contribute their 

resources to the Ebola response, urging companies that are doing 

business in the region to stay, and engaging U.S.-based businesses 

to consider investing in the region. The State Department has collaborated with groups, such as the Corporate Council on Africa and 

the Business Council on International Understanding, to convene 

companies interested in providing specific in-kind donations that 

would benefit the response. These groups as well as private American medical institutions, such as Morehouse Medical School and 

the Harvard Medical School, are focusing not only on responding 

to the short-term needs to combat Ebola but also on providing the 

infrastructure support that we know is necessary for the long-term 

economic and social recovery of the affected nations. 

One example of such collaboration is the State Department’s 

partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has 

not only donated $100 million to the response effort but has offered 

to pay for the manufacture of new specialized medical evacuation 

pods on behalf of the State Department. 

As another example, we are partnering with American technology firms to bolster information communication technology or 

ICT infrastructure in conjunction with UNMEER. Coordinating the 

response in west Africa is a massive logistical undertaking that requires adequate ICT to be successful. The efforts of the State Department and USAID in conveying the substantial ICT needs in affected countries have raised awareness of the need for better ICT 

infrastructure both to fight the Ebola virus right now and to make 

future disaster responses more effective. 

19

At the same time, Assistant Secretary Linda Thomas Greenfield 

has been working to keep diaspora groups informed and to encourage business interests in the region to stay the course through this 

current crisis. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the 

Corporate Council on Africa, the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization 

Group, the Business Council for International Understanding, and 

many private sector entities with substantial long-term business 

and investment presences in the affected regions have coordinated 

closely with the Department of State and USAID. We have advised 

them how they can not only employ their infrastructure and financial resources in support of this effort but also use examples of 

their positive partnership to encourage additional corporate engagement within their respective sectors in support of the Ebola response. 

As you can see, there are a multitude of actors involved in response efforts. As we recruit and convene them, the State Department is also focused on channeling their efforts to fill known resource gaps, which really brings us back to the U.N. 

Chairman ROYCE. Ambassador——

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Oh? 

Chairman ROYCE. It has been like 8 minutes. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. I am over time. 

Chairman ROYCE. I think what I would like to ask the witnesses 

to do is if you will just give 5 minutes of testimony, we have got 

your written report here, and we will have an opportunity to ask 

you questions afterwards. So maybe we should go to Mr. Lumpkin 

now. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. I appreciate it. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Ambassador. 

[The prepared statement of Ambassador Williams follows:]

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STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MICHAEL D. LUMPKIN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS AND LOW-INTENSITY CONFLICT, U.S. DEPARTMENT 

OF DEFENSE 

Mr. LUMPKIN. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Department of Defense’s role 

in the United States’ comprehensive Ebola response effort, which 

is a national security priority in response to a global threat. Due 

to the United States military’s unique capabilities, the Department 

has been called upon to provide interim solutions that would allow 

other departments and agencies the time necessary to expand and 

deploy their own capabilities. 

United States military efforts are also galvanizing a more robust 

and coordinated international effort, which is essential to contain 

this threat and to reduce human suffering. Before addressing the 

specific elements of DoD’s Ebola response effort, I would like to 

share my observations of the evolving crisis and our increasing response. 

Like Administrator Shah, I recently traveled to the area and I 

was left with a number of overarching impressions that are shaping the Department’s role in direct support of USAID. 

First, our Government has deployed a top notch team experienced in dealing with disasters and humanitarian assistance. 

Second, the Liberian Government is doing what they can with 

their very limited resources. 

Third, the international response is increasing rapidly due to our 

Government’s response efforts. 

Fourth, I traveled to the region thinking we faced a health care 

crisis with a logistics challenge. In reality, we face a logistics crisis 

focused on a healthcare challenge. 

Fifth, speed and scaled response matter. Incremental responses 

will be outpaced by this dynamic epidemic. 

And, finally, the Ebola epidemic we face truly is a national security issue. Absent our Government’s coordinated response in west 

Africa, the virus spread brings the risk of more cases here in the 

United States. 

I would like to now turn to DoD’s role in our direct support in 

west Africa. In mid-September, President Obama ordered the Department to undertake military operations in west Africa in direct 

support of USAID. Secretary Hagel directed that U.S. military 

forces undertake a twofold mission: First, support USAID and the 

overall U.S. Government efforts; and second, respond to the Department of State requests for security or evacuation if needed. 

Direct patient care of Ebola-exposed patients in west Africa is 

not part of the DoD mission. Secretary Hagel approved unique military activities falling under four lines of effort: Command and control, logistics support, engineering support, and training assistance. 

In the last 8 weeks, DoD has undertaken a number of synchronized 

activities in support of these lines of effort to include designating 

a named operation, Operation United Assistance; establishing an 

intermediate staging base in Dakar, Senegal; providing strategic 

and tactical airlift; constructing the 25-bed hospital in Monrovia; 

and constructing 12 Ebola treatment units in Liberia; training local 

30

and third-country healthcare support personnel, enabling them to 

serve as the first responders in these Ebola treatment units 

throughout Liberia. 

In all circumstances, the protection of our personnel and the prevention of any additional transmission of the disease remain paramount planning factors. There is no higher operational priority 

than protecting our Department of Defense personnel. 

In addition to the activities of United Assistance, the Department will continue to support the Liberian Armed Forces through 

Operation Onward Liberty and expand the regional efforts of DoD’s 

cooperative biological engagement program. DoD has also increased 

support to the Department of Health and Human Services and the 

Department of Homeland Security, the lead agencies for Ebola response here in the United States, by activating a medical support 

team that can rapidly augment the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention and capabilities anywhere within the country in a 72-

hour notice. 

In conclusion, we have a comprehensive U.S. Government response and increasingly a coordinated international response. The 

Department of Defense’s interim measures are an essential element of the U.S. response to lay the necessary groundwork for the 

international community to mobilize its response efforts, and as 

mentioned earlier by the chairman, I am joined by Major General 

Jim Lariviere and Major General Nadja West from the Joint Staff, 

and we look forward to your questions. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lumpkin follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. Let me ask some questions here, and if I could 

start, maybe I will ask this of you, Administrator Shah. In the 

early days of the response, the World Health Organization really 

I think failed their donors and failed the people of west Africa, but 

as I went down those arguments that we heard coming out of the 

region, that these were politically appointed country directors, and 

they were downplaying the crisis. They had warnings from credible 

organizations, and they ignored them. They failed to submit reports 

back to headquarters in Geneva. They obstructed travel by experts, 

and they resisted offers of assistance from the Centers for Disease 

Control as well as from USAID. And you add to that that it was 

the WHO guidelines on prevention and containment, which our 

own CDC clung to for far too long in my opinion that proved wholly 

inadequate. So, today, the WHO continues to serve as the lead 

agency in the U.N.’s Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, and 

the administration is seeking more funds for the WHO. 

We understand the funds for tackling this problem, but without 

reform at the WHO, I would just ask, do you have confidence that 

they are up to the task here, if they are going to be the lead organization? And how has the WHO corrected course over the past several weeks? Are they making changes, especially considering the 

situation you had on the ground there? 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the most important 

response to your question is that, yes, there have been very significant changes made at WHO to the quality, the personnel, and the 

focus on this response. That is true in all three countries. Part of 

my assessment and my trip was to assess all of our United Nations 

partners. Most of the investment reflected in the request are personnel, logistics, commodity purchase, like protective equipment, 

and distribution. Those main cost drivers will end up being deployed by partners like the World Food Programme that actually 

manage the logistics response over the medium to long term in the 

region. 

WHO plays a critical role on technical issues, on training support, in some cases running Ebola treatment units, and they are 

working with our NGO partners, like the International Medical 

Corps, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and others to execute that 

function. So they play an essential role. We have worked hard with 

them to scale up their capacity, and right now, we need them to 

perform. And we are going to help them perform, and we are going 

to measure results. And when we have challenges, I am on the 

phone with my counterpart, the director general there, very often 

in order to make sure we have an open line of communication 

about what has to be done to succeed. 

Chairman ROYCE. Well, the argument that I understand is that 

they have the experience, but the people at the helm, the country 

director for Guinea, the outgoing regional director for Africa in particular demonstrated deadly incompetence in this situation. So the 

United States is on the executive board. We should figure out a 

way to reform the personnel process so that cronyism at the U.N. 

isn’t a big part of the problem and, at the same time, perhaps figure out a way to have them bring more doctors and personnel and 

experts around the globe into this region, into west Africa to conVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:09 Feb 23, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Z:\WORK\_FULL\111314\91450 SHIRL
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front the crisis. And I would just ask you about that besides management reform. Can we push for such a directive? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, thank you for the suggestion. I think we will 

take both of those suggestions on board. The new executive director 

from the United States is Dr. Tom Frieden to the WHO. He is very 

focused on those and other issues, and right now, you are right to 

point out that the World Health Organization is leading the mobilization of international medical support for this mission overall, and 

your points are well taken, and they are important, and we will 

continue to push to make sure that function is implemented well. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Dr. Shah. 

Another thought we had was that we have, you know, with 

UNMIL’s role, you have 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed in Liberia, and their mandate there is to solidify peace and stability. And 

prior to this outbreak, they were winding down. But what role is 

UNMIL playing in the Ebola crisis, and does it have the engineering capabilities there to play a role? The mission’s U.N. mandate 

will be renewed again I think in December. Will we see any 

changes in the mandate? Are any needed with respect to addressing this challenge? 

Mr. SHAH. I will just say, you know, keeping UNMIL both together, well-resourced, and operationally contributing to the response has been a major priority. When Ambassador Power made 

her trip, that was a point that she really drilled down on. We do 

believe they have important assets that include logistics support, 

helicopter lift, some degree of engineering. They are working with 

the main United Nations logistics provider, which in this case is 

the World Food Programme, to scale up their contribution to the 

Ebola response, and we are very hopeful that all of UNMIL’s contributing partners will maintain a commitment to keep that entity 

going and strong into the future. 

Chairman ROYCE. And, lastly, Dr. Shah, you spoke of the supplemental request, but leaving the question of resources aside for a 

minute, and I am supportive on that, are there any additional legal 

authorities that would improve USAID’s mission, and do you have 

all the authorities you need? What should we do legislatively in 

terms of policy that would strengthen your ability to tackle this 

challenge? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think there are, in 

addition to the resources identified in the request, a few specific 

congressional authorities that we would seek. One is the broad 

transfer authority that would give us the flexibility to use funds 

across various foreign assistance accounts as needed over the 

course of the year. This will allow us to, if the, you know, if the 

crisis moves to Mali and we need to be responsive there, it allows 

us to be responsive. This would allow us if the crisis is more intensely on food security and governance and the number of new 

cases is down, it will allow us to make balanced and appropriate 

judgments and transitions. 

Second, the notwithstanding authority for economic support 

funds in this context will allow us to move fast and effectively, and 

so we request that. 

And the two priorities, sir, that you have been a champion for 

in food security around continuing to, you know, allow us to have 

43

more flexibility to do what saves the most lives most efficiently and 

to promote agricultural investments through Feed the Future will 

also be helpful, and I know those are in a separate process, but I 

very much value your leadership and the committee’s support in 

those areas where we have proven that these investments can deliver the kinds of results that then avoid these crises in the future, 

which ought to be our goal. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Dr. Shah. 

We go to Mr. Engel of New York. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

For the first question, I would like to ask a quick question to Administrator Shaw. As I mentioned in my opening statement, I am 

very pleased to see that the administration has required additional 

funds to fight this epidemic. Could you please explain to us how 

fast you are drawing down existing funds, and if Congress fails to 

approve this budget request in a timely manner, at what point will 

we lack appropriate resources for the response? 

Mr. SHAH. We are drawing down funds faster than I have ever 

seen us do, and we have had to do that because we know that resources spent now will avoid the kind of catastrophic case numbers 

that would require far higher resource levels in the future. In just 

the last few months and going into at the end of the year, USAID 

alone from its disaster assistance account will expend nearly $500 

million. To put that in perspective, the entire annual budget of the 

disaster assistance, or IDA, account, is $1.1 billion. Right now, we 

are dealing with massive crises. We are averting a famine in South 

Sudan. We are supporting 7 million people in Syria and in neighboring countries. We are dealing with an upcoming winter in Afghanistan, where I was just a few days ago, and we are not going 

to be able to sustain this effort unless we have relief on the resources. 

So thank you for your question, sir. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you very much. 

It was very encouraging to see that Africa’s most populated country, Nigeria, was successful in containing the recent outbreak of 

Ebola. 

Administrator, could you describe how our foreign assistance programs, particularly those focused on health, have helped to contain 

Ebola in Nigeria. And tell us what lessons we can learn from their 

success. 

Mr. SHAH. Well, sir, I think your championing, global health investments at USAID and the PEPFAR program have helped, especially in Nigeria, create the capacity to be responsive. In this case, 

there were a few cases. They quickly spread. I think there were 18 

total cases. They had to do almost 18,000 contact tracing activities 

to make sure that they could identify all of the people who would 

potentially be affected in Port Harcourt. They were able to quarantine I think more than 80 individuals through the period and, 

through that very effective response, were able to eliminate Ebola 

from Nigeria, which as you know if it took off in some of the urban 

settings there, we would be looking at an even more catastrophic 

situation. 

So our ability to continue to make the investments that we have 

made over the past several years to build health systems, to train 

44

health workers, to make sure that their medical supplies—they 

have basic supplies for oral rehydration and malaria control and 

those types of efforts, make a huge difference in preparedness. 

They made a difference in Nigeria. They make a huge difference in 

East Africa, which we are not talking about because of the effectiveness of those existing investments. And I want to thank you 

and other members of the committee for ongoing support for these 

global health programs. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. 

I want to raise an issue that is bound to be raised by others here 

and that we have heard being raised time and time again since we 

have had the outbreak of the Ebola crisis. And that is travel bans. 

There has been a great deal of discussion obviously relating to implementing travel bans or visa bans from west African countries 

being impacted by the Ebola outbreak. Several Governors, including in my home State of New York, have instituted a mandatory 

21-day quarantine period for individuals returning from west Africa. I understand there is a desire to obviously protect Americans 

from Ebola, and I want to do everything I can to ensure that my 

constituents are not exposed to the virus, but I want to know what 

is really happening. 

So can you tell me what the impact would be on the Ebola response if travel bans, visa bans, or a mandatory quarantine period 

were to be instituted? And what do you believe should Congress be 

doing to best protect Americans? I don’t know who would like to 

take that. Administrator or Ambassador? 

Mr. SHAH. I can start, and then I will ask Ambassador Williams 

to add to this. The President has been very clear that keeping 

Americans safe is our top priority, and the only way we will do that 

is tackling this challenge at its source where there have been more 

than 13,000 cases. We as a team have looked very carefully across 

a broad range of options and ultimately have determined that a 

science-based approach to making decisions would allow us to 

mount the most effective response and keep Americans safe. 

When we saw the actions taken in New Jersey in particular, for 

example, a number of USAID implementing partners immediately 

had to withdraw their proposals and say instead of building or 

staffing two or three Ebola treatment units, we can only do one because so many doctors have backed out of going because understandably if they don’t know what the situation is going to be like 

when they return, it is hard to make that commitment. 

I and Ambassador Williams and others have spoken to a lot of 

our international partners, and I think we are convinced that 

America is the signal decision maker. If we isolate these countries, 

the rest of the world will isolate these countries. And that will create a much different epidemic curve, and we will all have to come 

back here and discuss how are we going to handle many, many, 

many additional cases than what we are looking at now. 

The Ambassador may want to add to that. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Engel, for also raising 

this. This is an issue that has been under discussion for quite a 

while, and it is really, really important that we put these things 

in context. What we are really talking about when you talk about 

a travel ban, that would mean people are thinking about banning 

45

flights and banning persons. In fact, there are no direct flights 

from the affected countries to the United States, first of all. So we 

are really then talking about banning people who come through a 

visa, through a visa process, more than banning actual flights. And 

the data shows that basically 60 percent of the persons entering 

the United States from that region, from the region, are either U.S. 

citizens or they are green card holders. They are lawfully permanent residents. So now we are looking at a 30 percent portion. 

If we ban a visa, our experience shows that preventing access, 

legal access, really forces people to choose illegal methods. And 

once you do that, you are then losing the ability to use all the protocols that we have in place that we know work. How do you trace 

people? Where are people going? What is the contact information? 

How do you monitor? So one of the reasons that we are really urging that there be no implementation of any kind of a visa ban or 

travel ban is that we want to know where people are going. First 

of all, we are talking about a relatively small number of people, 

and we are talking about implementing the strategies that we 

know work. 

The other aspect of getting the actual healthcare professionals to 

the region, getting the ability for pilots to be able to transport, to 

be able to get supplies and healthcare workers in and out of the 

region, all those kinds of things are impacted by a notion of denying access or denying visas to travelers. So what we have tried to 

emphasize is that we need to keep the science first and foremost, 

and we need to watch and see what is working, and so far, our 

strategies have been working. 

The other thing that would happen, we are trying not to isolate. 

We talked about the secondary effects of this crisis, and there are 

deep economic effects. So we are trying to use a strategy that helps 

us to, first of all, stop the spread of this disease and also reinforces 

the capacities of the people in those places to be able to respond 

to the spread of the disease. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN [presiding]. Thank you so much, Mr. Engel. 

The Chair recognizes herself. 

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. 

Last year, State and USAID spent more than $52 million on 

global health efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea combined, but I know, in my constituency, they ask where did all that 

money go? It has become apparent that these countries did not 

have the healthcare infrastructure in place to handle or contain the 

Ebola disease. And as we have seen, it can spread to Europe and 

North America. And with the communist dictatorship in Cuba 

sending hundreds of forced labor healthcare workers to Ebola-impacted countries, we have got to ensure here in the United States 

that we are taking every possible precaution. It is appalling that 

the Obama administration officials are praising the Castro communist dictators for forcing these workers, forcing them, to go to 

Ebola-impacted countries in Africa. These healthcare officials do 

not have a choice. Their families face retaliation on the island if 

they don’t go. They are forced to go as part of a coordinated PR 

campaign orchestrated by the regime for its own political agenda, 

and it is disgusting and shameful that we should be congratulating 

46

Cuba for forcing people to go to these countries and ask the regime 

what happens to those workers if they are found to be impacted 

with Ebola. They are not allowed to go back to Cuba. 

Here are some facts about Cuba and its healthcare apparatus. In 

the 1980s, that same Cuban regime, the same people, sent HIV 

positive patients to concentration camps. The regime has taken out 

life insurance policies on behalf of its workers, but instead of naming the families as beneficiaries, any insurance dollars right now 

go to the regime. The regime is not exporting its workers for free. 

It receives approximately $8 billion per year that it uses to oppress 

the Cuban people. Cuban healthcare workers receive less than 25 

percent of the money from donors that is supposed to pay for their 

salary. The rest is confiscated by the regime. 

Finally, Dr. Shaw, I have a question for you staying on the subject of Cuba because, earlier this year, in April, you testified before 

this committee, and I asked you if USAID will remain committed 

to reaching out to people suffering under closed societies and dictatorships. Your answer was yes. And, in September, President 

Obama spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative and stated that the 

administration ‘‘will oppose attempts by foreign governments to 

dictate the nature of our assistance to civil society and oppose efforts by foreign governments to restrict freedom of peaceful assembly and association and expression.’’ That is a good quote. 

Yet, this week, there is a column in the Associated Press that 

says everything to the contrary. According to news reports, USAID 

is planning on rolling out new regulations that seek to prohibit 

USAID from working in closed societies. By coincidence, it seems 

that the new regulations are in line with a certain Senator who has 

been pushing to normalize relations with Communist Cuba, and 

these attempts by Castro apologists may be a backdoor deal to secure the release of Alan Gross. I certainly hope not because Alan 

Gross is innocent and should be released immediately, unconditionally, without concessions to the tyrants who have held him unjustly 

for over 5 years. 

So, Dr. Shaw, is it true that USAID would consider dropping programs wherever USAID was denounced? And if true, it would only 

benefit thugs like the Castro brothers and Nicolas Maduro, Rafael 

Correa. They will use this as an opportunity to gloat that they got 

USAID to cave and run away from its mission. Why is USAID calling and running away from democracy programs in Cuba and Venezuela and Ecuador, Iran, and Russia? And if not, will you come 

out and set the record straight, Dr. Shah? 

Mr. SHAH. Certainly. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 

And I just want to highlight, I do want to stay focused on Ebola 

in this context, but I can assure you that I am standing by the answer I gave you previously, that we are going to continue to work 

in difficult environments on democratic governance programs as we 

have for years. The framework to which the article refers is one 

that we are eager to discuss, I know have been discussing with 

your team, and I am eager to discuss in more detail with you. I 

do not in any way believe it diminishes our commitment to that objective, and I can discuss how it is being implemented in that context. I appreciate your comments about Alan Gross. And as you 

47

know, we work continually on behalf of articulating why he should 

be released through our colleagues in the State Department. 

I would like to just make reference previously to your comment about the $52 million spent in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea 

on health. It is quite worth noting that over the last 5 years in all 

three countries we have seen rapid reductions in child mortality 

and maternal mortality because primarily of expanded access to 

bed nets for children who would otherwise get malaria. Those reductions have saved a lot of child lives. And, in fact, just over the 

last 8 weeks we have had a massive bed net distribution throughout the region because malaria patients present with the same 

symptoms as Ebola—fever, nausea, vomiting—and so we want to 

make sure we keep that under control as we are tackling Ebola. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Dr. Shah. 

Mr. SHAH. One thing I will say, what did happen is the 

healthcare workers got infected early in this response. And that did 

decimate their healthcare systems, and that is why I think we are 

dealing with a much more complex situation than we otherwise 

would. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I appreciate your answers. 

Mr. Connolly is recognized. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 

Mr. Shah, the President appointed a Ebola czar, Ron Klain. 

What is your relationship, and Ambassador Williams, what is your 

relationship to that Ebola czar? 

Mr. SHAH. Ron Klain has come into the administration and is 

carrying out the function of coordinating policy and oversight of a 

very complex domestic and international Ebola response. I talk to 

Ron almost daily, and we are in meetings together quite often. I 

think he has done a very effective job of helping the President 

frame decisions and gather the right data and make the right calls 

over the last—since he has joined, and I know that it is a difficult 

task, and we are trying to do everything we can to support him in 

a very important role. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Thank you. I, too, have spoken with Mr. 

Klain. I spoke to him actually just yesterday. His role is, as Raj 

just explained, coordinating the overall U.S. Government interagency interaction while we do the implementing. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Is there a need for coordination, coordination 

that apparently was not occurring before Mr. Klain’s appointment? 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Our view is there is a need for the kind 

of overseeing coordination that he is providing because this emergency has so many moving aspects to it. It is really a whole-of-government operation. We are used to in the interagency context to 

meeting together, talking together, and focusing on accomplishing 

our mission. But we are finding the logistical challenges, the health 

challenges, and the secondary and third, tertiary effects of this 

really are quite complex. And so I welcome the insurance that he 

is giving by making sure all these little pieces are really talking. 

I can focus on my aspects at State. But it redounds to others. So, 

yes, I think it is necessary. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. The chairman provided a pretty devastating critique of WHO in the early stages of the crisis, in terms of both 

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terized as rampant with cronyism. Do you agree with that critique, 

Mr. Shah? 

Mr. SHAH. You know, I have been very focused on ensuring WHO 

has the right people, processes, and resources to carry out a function we need them to carry out in the region right now. I can tell 

you on my visit, I spent time with all of their local staff in all three 

countries, and I was impressed with—these were technical people, 

very sophisticated, helping to train hundreds of local healthcare 

workers on how to use protective equipment, how to carry out their 

function. I do believe there is going to be room after this to look 

back and make reforms as to how WHO can be more effective connecting its leadership in Geneva to its on-the-ground eyes and ears 

and capabilities. And I think there will be time for that, but right 

now, my focus is making sure we have the right WHO folks in 

country, they are carrying out their function, working in a team 

with us and others. And it is working statistically and we are seeing some results. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Do we have the right folks on the ground? 

Mr. SHAH. I wish we had more of their capacity to have trainers 

and disease control experts there. I have communicated that to 

Margaret Chan, who leads WHO, and we are in constant communication with. Yes, now, I think you are looking at a substantively 

improved WHO response in all three countries. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Well, it just seems to me—I can appreciate your 

diplomatic answer, and there will be time after the crisis to try to 

improve WHO, but if the chairman is right in his critique, we have 

no reason to be confident in WHO. In fact, WHO contributed to the 

spread of this virus and to a high mortality rate, frankly, because 

of its incompetence and cronyism and its lack of focus and its lack 

of timeliness. 

There is a big difference between we can tweak it to make it better and more effective, and it is incompetent to begin with and simply collapsed in the face of this pressing crisis. And it seems to me 

the American people and the Congress are entitled to know the difference here, Mr. Shah. 

Mr. SHAH. We are, in the first instance, the focus for us is making sure that they have the right talent, focus and process, and I 

can assure you they do now in these three countries. I have learned 

that that institution ought to have some additional capabilities and 

more connectivity in terms of command and control. Those were 

some of the missing early elements that the United States stepped 

in to provide. And I know as Dr. Frieden and others take forward 

a process of reform, they will focus on those items. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Well, I would just end by, again, I think it is a 

fairly dispositive issue. If WHO is going to be the primary international agency with which we need to partner in this kind of crisis, which will not be unique—there will be others—we have got to 

have confidence that that international partner is competent and 

has the resources and the talent to respond in a robust and timely 

manner. Otherwise, lives are lost. And, furthermore, we start from 

way behind where we needed to in trying to catch up and get 

ahead of the curve of this terrible disease. So I look forward to 

hearing a lot more about it later on. 

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 

49

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Connolly. 

I am honored to recognize Mr. Smith of New Jersey, a champion 

on all of the issues of the subcommittee that he chairs. He is chairman of the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee. 

Mr. Chris Smith. 

Mr. SMITH. I thank my good friend and the distinguished chair 

for yielding. Thanks again to our distinguished witnesses for your 

past and ongoing leadership. In response, and it has been mentioned before but it bears underscoring, to the Ebola outbreak, in 

March, the World Health Organization fewer than 200 people were 

infected and that approximately $5 million was needed to contain 

it. However on October 17, Maria Cheng of the Associated Press 

wrote a story, headlined ‘‘U.N.: We botched the response to Ebola 

outbreak,’’ and cited a report that blamed incompetent staff and 

quoted Dr. Peter Piot, one of the co-discoverers of the Ebola virus, 

who said that the regional office in Africa is ‘‘really not competent.’’ 

Now, in light of that, what role is UNMEER actually playing on 

the ground? We know about WHO, what they are doing now, but 

what is UNMEER doing, again, another U.N. initiative? 

Secondly, Dr. Frieden testified at my emergency subcommittee 

hearing on August 7 and laid out the prudent steps that were 

being taken to detect and to try to mitigate this crisis. When we 

had the second hearing on September 17, Dr. Fauci said that now 

this terrible disease had gone exponential. He said in public health, 

when you put incremental against exponential, exponential always 

wins. Nobody on the panel has used the word exponential. And I 

wonder if you could update the committee on what has happened, 

what have been the game changers, and what are we talking about 

in terms of numbers, immediate, intermediate, and long term in 

terms of and projected number of cases of Ebola? 

Thirdly, Dr. Brantly testified at our September 17 hearing and 

talked about home isolation. And thankfully, the military is doing 

a yeoman’s work in building up isolation and treatment units; 

1,700 I believe are contemplated. But he pointed out that family 

members and sometimes neighbors are caring for these sick individuals at home and therefore contracting the disease themselves. 

We now have to look at interventions that involve educating and 

equipping these homes and caregivers for their own protection, and 

he talked about the safety measures. Are we training home 

healthcare workers to help their loved ones so, one, they do help 

their loved ones but also so they, too, don’t get sick? 

General, if you could touch on the issue of protecting our 

servicemembers. What kind of protective measures are in place? 

Are they adequate to the task? 

You talked about labs, Dr. Shah. What is the goal in the labs? 

Where are we now in terms of the goal capability? Good news 

about the 5 to 7 hours, but what is the endgame and how much 

lab capacity are we looking to establish? I have other questions, 

but time probably doesn’t permit. On the quarantine issue, where 

are we on quarantine? We know the military talks 21 days. Is that 

still the situation? What is the quarantine issue as you see it today 

if somebody is in west Africa? 

50

Mr. SHAH. Okay. I will start very briefly, and thank you, Chairman Smith, for your just unwavering support for global health over 

decades. We are proud to be associated with your work. 

First, on UNMEER, I would note that I think the U.N. in recognition of its need to improve operational performance on the 

ground, created this mission, resourced it, put Tony Banbury, a 

former Department of Defense emergency response official, in 

charge in Accra, Ghana, and has—in fact, since then, we have seen 

improvements in how UNICEF, the World Health Organization, 

and the World Food Programme, have organized themselves to do 

the logistics and operations of this response in those three countries. So that is on UNMEER. 

On data and exponential versus incremental, I think our concern 

is always exponential growth. And what we now see throughout the 

region is about 3,000 current active cases, roughly evenly split 

across with 1,300 to 1,500 in each, depending on the numbers, in 

Liberia and Sierra Leone and with a few hundred in Guinea. Our 

concern is—we have seen a big reduction driven, as I mentioned, 

by burial teams, community behavior change, the fact that people 

are bumping elbows instead of shaking hands, and washing their 

hands with chlorine. And because we have built out already more 

than doubling the capacity of Ebola treatment units so that we 

have enough capacity now in places like Monrovia. 

The reality though is we are now seeing micro epidemics 

throughout the countryside, and any one of those could become exponential if we don’t have an adaptable and flexible response, 

which this funding request and our strategy going forward will 

support. And that then addresses your question about home 

healthcare workers and the lab end game. The strategy really is 

evolving to focus on rapid response capabilities, so when you see 

that there is a case in a rural community, you can quickly get there 

with lab support, with personnel, with protective equipment, the 

ability to quickly set up a community care center or mini ETU that 

might be 5 to 10 beds and deal with that cluster before it gets to 

be an exponential problem. And if we are effective at doing that, 

we will avoid the consequences of exponential growth that Dr. 

Fauci has spoken about. 

Mr. LUMPKIN. If I may, before I turn it over to General Lariviere 

here, just to reemphasize the protection of DoD personnel is our 

number one priority as we are continuing to support USAID in 

west Africa. So we have a robust training program for our service 

members and DoD civilians prior to going over to the region to 

serve. We have a very thorough monitoring program while they are 

there, and then we have a controlled monitoring program when 

they redeploy back to the United States or their home station. 

And as you are aware, the service chiefs as well as the Chairman 

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made a recommendation to Secretary 

Hagel to support a 21-day controlled monitoring quarantine-like 

situation upon return. The Secretary approved that because of the 

unique nature of the military, the scope and the size of our footprint over there, and the operational needs on howreintegrate our 

forces back into home station. So I will turn it over to General 

Lariviere, who can answer the specifics. 

General LARIVIERE. Thank you, sir. 

51

Mr. Smith, as Mr. Lumpkin said, we are taking measures in all 

phases of the operation, pre-deployment, during deployment and 

post-deployment. Before deployment, all personnel will receive a 

medical threat briefing covering all health threats and measures. 

In addition, they will receive special training on the EVD safety 

precautions, prevention and protection measures, personal protective equipment use, symptom recognition and monitoring. As Mr. 

Lumpkin said, they will be monitored continually throughout the 

deployment with their temperature taken twice a day and obviously with medical checks throughout. 

Upon redeployment, as was also mentioned because of the special 

nature of the military’s deployment, the use of our population, et 

cetera, on the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs, the chairman 

did recommend to the staff that personnel be put in controlled 

monitoring once they return. So, again, we are taking measures 

throughout the deployment to ensure the safety of our troops. 

Mr. LUMPKIN. If I may add one more piece. Please keep in mind 

again DoD personnel are not doing direct patient care. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. And for personnel that are under chiefof-mission authority at our Embassy services in the affected areas, 

we are following the CDC guidelines and the regular protocol. Our 

people are going to be screened before they depart post. They will 

be screened at whatever is the transit point, and they will be 

screened again upon entry to the United States. And then, unless 

the State where they are going has a specific protocol, they will be 

following the health authorities’ protocols, which will self-monitoring and temperature checks twice a day. This is in close coordination between MED at State Department and MED’s coordination 

with whatever is the home state of our transferring personnel. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

And, Mr. Smith, the chair allowed you great latitude because it 

is within your jurisdiction. Thank you, Mr. Smith. 

I am now pleased to yield to Mr. Brad Sherman, ranking member 

of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Ebola is a great issue, not only for development 

in Africa, but for the American people. It sweeps across Africa. 

Then, every week, someone with Ebola will come into the United 

States if this becomes an endemic problem not only for three African countries but for all African countries. And it would be a challenge for our public health system if, every week, someone arrives 

in the United States with Ebola. 

With that in mind, I will ask each person on the panel what do 

you need from Congress? What can we do to help? I will start with 

Major General West and go straight down. 

General WEST. Thank you, sir, for that question. I appreciate the 

support that DoD has been given and continues to be given from 

committees such as this and from the general support in general. 

But, again, I believe DoD and, with Mr. Lumpkin as our lead, we 

have been given the resources that we need. So I think for now we 

have got the resources that we need to accomplish our mission. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SHERMAN. I don’t know if I need to hear from the rest of DoD 

if you pretty much match—Mr. Lumpkin? 

52

Mr. LUMPKIN. I would offer that the emergency funding request 

is what we need. There is a portion of that that is a DoD request 

for $112 million to do advance vaccine research for DARPA. That 

would be working in conjunction with NIH and the Defense Threat 

Reduction Agency. So that would be helpful, but I think across the 

whole of government, that emergency funding request is phenomenal. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Ambassador, anything to add? 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. I, too, was going to say we really need 

the funding of the emergency supplemental request. Part of that 

for the State Department is going to be focused on the immediate 

response but also for building up our capacity within MED to be 

able to effect evacuations and respond to the health emergencies, 

repatriation of people. So, yes, we need funding of this. It is all explained in our request. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Shah? 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you. I would highlight three things. First is the 

$6.2 billion resource request, which I would point out, while Ebola 

is far more complex and our responsibilities to respond in west Africa are far more significant than what previously took place with 

H1N1 or H5N1, this request is geared to be roughly at the same 

level as Congress provided in 2006 and 2009 in those contexts. So 

we really do require these resources to be successful, and, frankly, 

we will not succeed without them. 

Second, there are specific authorities, including the transfer authority and the notwithstanding authority, in the request that I 

think are absolutely essential. Because this is a fast-moving and 

adaptable viral epidemic, we need to be fast-moving and adaptable 

in our response. It will ultimately save money, time, lives, and 

threat. 

And then, third and finally, this committee and your leadership 

has helped us establish a much more robust effort to food, agriculture, and avoiding hunger. And the number one nonhealth consequence of this challenge is going to be a widespread food crisis 

in this region. Any support the committee can offer for Feed the 

Future legislation and efforts to reform the way we provide food assistance is much appreciated. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Let me get to one more question. And that is, Administrator Shah, have we or our partners produced a video in all 

relevant languages that will explain to healthcare workers how to 

put on and take off the suits, perhaps other important points for 

Ebola health corps workers, given the fact that a very significant 

portion of those getting the disease are the healthcare workers? 

And, again, is that video available in all relevant languages? And 

have we deployed the hardware so that we can show this? No use 

having a disk if you don’t have a DVR, et cetera, or an iPad or 

whatever. Go ahead. 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you, Congressman. I think that is an excellent 

suggestion. I know there are videos. I don’t know if they are in all 

relevant languages. I will say that, in all three countries now, there 

are large-scale training programs, and I want to commend the Department of Defense for using its program of instruction to help 

create a protocol for training healthcare workers. And I think 70 

of the first trained workers have come out of that system in LibeVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:09 Feb 23, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Z:\WORK\_FULL\111314\91450 SHIRL
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ria, and it just shows the interagency cooperation. But that is an 

outstanding recommendation that we will take back and share with 

our colleagues. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Because I believe it is like one-fifth of those with 

Ebola are the healthcare workers themselves. I have never seen a 

disease that had that configuration. 

Mr. SHAH. That percentage is now coming down, and the rate of 

infection for healthcare workers in part because this response has 

focused on effective training is coming down significantly, but it is 

absolutely a concern that we are focused on. 

Mr. SHERMAN. I yield back. 

Mr. POE [presiding]. The Chair recognizes himself for 5 minutes. 

Thank you, you all for being here. It is always great to see you. 

Administrator Shah, again, who is in charge of this Ebola epidemic in the United States? Who is the main person that is in 

charge? 

Mr. SHAH. Ron Klain is the Ebola coordinator and brings all of 

us together. Each agency has its own discrete responsibility. 

Mr. POE. But he is in charge? All these other agencies which you 

all are sum of. Is that a fair statement? 

Mr. SHAH. I think that is a fair statement. If you need an answer 

to a question, Ron is a good source to go to. 

Mr. POE. He was asked to be here today. And he is not here. But 

you are here, so I can’t ask him those questions. He did say yesterday on MSNBC—I mean, he doesn’t come to Capitol Hill, but he 

did say that there will be more Ebola cases in the United States. 

I will ask, General West, since you are a medical doctor, do you 

agree with that statement? 

General WEST. Sir, thank you for the question. Sir, I believe 

there is always a potential that an additional case might enter the 

United States, so I think his comment was based upon the fact that 

we have already had one gentleman, Mr. Duncan, who did arrive 

on the shores of the U.S. with Ebola, though asymptomatic, so it 

is conceivable that there might be an additional case. 

Mr. POE. Conceivable is different than there will be. The possibility is a different answer. Conceivable, to me, is different than an 

answer is there will be more Ebola cases in the United States. 

Let’s assume he is correct about that. I personally think we need 

a visa ban. 

In all due respect, Ambassador, I don’t believe in the philosophy 

that if we tighten the rules to get into the United States that with 

encourage people to come illegally. Then why have any rules for all 

of the countries in the whole world if that is going to occur? 

I was raised, I was taught by folks that, my grandmother, if you 

are sick don’t get around healthy people. And if you are sick, don’t 

let healthy people get around you. But be that as it may, it is assumed that Mr. Klain is correct. The United States’ response to 

this, I think, is we should, for a temporary period, keep folks from 

the United States with a visa ban. 

Dr. Shah, let me ask you this. Are people who are being treated 

in Africa for Ebola, are any of them being brought to the United 

States? 

Mr. SHAH. Not at this time. Part of the rationale for investing 

in and building out a 25-person world class hospital in Monrovia, 

54

called the Monrovia Medical Unit, and staffed by U.S. public health 

service personnel just recently completed and built by the Department of Defense is to have the capacity to provide world class care 

in west Africa. We have worked with the British to build a similar 

12-bed unit in Kerry Town outside of Freetown. 

Mr. POE. But are there any plans to bring folks to the United 

States that are being treated or may have Ebola in Africa? That 

is the question. 

Mr. SHAH. Well, I think if medically indicated from that unit, if 

an American healthcare worker requires a special treatment——

Mr. POE. I am not talking about healthcare workers. I am talking about African citizens. 

Mr. SHAH. No. Any special services are focused on healthcare 

workers powering the response. 

Mr. POE. So the treatment is taking place in the African countries that are affected, and it is not a plan of the United States to 

bring those folks to treat them in the United States, except for 

workers from the United States, maybe the military? 

Mr. SHAH. Exactly. 

Mr. POE. Okay. I just wanted to make that clear as well. 

How many Americans are currently travelling from the United 

States to west Africa? Do we know that number? Not counting military and aid workers, humanitarian workers, but how many other 

folks are travelling? Do we have number of that, Ambassador Williams or Administrator Shah? 

Mr. SHAH. We do. Maybe Ambassador Williams will add to this. 

I would just note that Secretary Johnson is responsible for those 

issues of travel and homeland, and so I don’t want to speak on his 

behalf. I have heard him go through the numbers in a lot of detail. 

I just don’t want to get them wrong as I repeat them to you. 

Mr. POE. Ambassador Williams is raising her hand. You don’t 

have to raise your hand in here to talk. I will recognize you anyway. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. I don’t have the numbers here. I know 

they are available. I don’t have them with me so I can take the 

question. I am sorry. 

Mr. POE. All right. Is anyone besides the military having a 21-

day quarantine when they return to the United States? 

Mr. SHAH. The medical protocol is, depending on what category 

of risk you are upon return, you slot into a different protocol. So 

when I came back from my trip, I was on a 21-day active monitoring, which I cleared a few days ago. 

Mr. POE. Thank you. 

Mr. SHAH. So I was in daily contact with my Washington, DC, 

public health service person, but I was also not in the highest level 

of risk. Those who are are dealt with as required. 

Mr. POE. All right. Thank all of you all. 

The Chair will recognize the ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, Representative 

Deutch, from Florida. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks to the distinguished committee for being here. Each of your agencies is playing a vital response to this crisis, and I would especially like to exVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:09 Feb 23, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Z:\WORK\_FULL\111314\91450 SHIRL
55

press our gratitude to the military personnel and the aid workers 

who are in west Africa assisting in this crisis. 

I wanted to circle back to the numbers. More than 14,000 people 

have been infected. More than 5,000 have died. Now there are 

some reports, there were reports yesterday, the WHO said that 

they believe that in Guinea and Liberia, that there has been some, 

I think they said that there has been moderating of the number of 

infections, but they have also said, the WHO had said previously 

that the actual number of cases may be dramatically higher than 

currently reported. Our own CDC has said that the toll can be two 

to four times the WHO’s numbers. There was an estimate earlier 

that there could be as many as 5,000 to 10,000 new infections per 

week by December. Can you address where we are in terms of 

what the actual numbers are and what you anticipate they may 

spike to? 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you. Thank you, first, for our comments about 

our military service personnel and the aid workers who are doing 

really extraordinary work. I would note, when I note that there are 

about 3,000 current active cases in the region, that that is a data 

point that as best we can accounts for potential underreporting of 

data. And it also tracks against the reality that over the last 8 

weeks, we have seen a reduction in the number of new cases in Liberia, which had been the epicenter of the epidemic. The driver of 

that reduction has been kind of community-based efforts that have 

handled the management of deceased persons more effectively so 

that you don’t transmit from dead bodies to others in that instance. 

Now, it is hard to estimate what future numbers could be or 

would be. Today, even in Liberia, we see as many as 20 small or 

micro epidemics throughout the country, and any one of them could 

become a cluster that then leads to exponential growth. 

Mr. DEUTCH. I am sorry, Administrator. I was going to ask about 

that, but since you brought it up, can you tell us what a micro epidemic is and how it might turn into a broader epidemic throughout 

the country? 

Mr. SHAH. Sure. I was just on the phone yesterday with colleagues from Samaritan’s Purse, and they were describing this. 

They go into a rural community where they think there might be 

a case or got a report, and they find that in seven or eight homes, 

people are housing patients that look like they have symptoms and 

are afraid to come out or are not seeking or reporting care or are 

not presenting at an Ebola treatment unit. And all of a sudden, 

that cluster of cases could quite quickly, because those patients are 

not isolated and they are getting symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea in a highly dense populated home environment, all of a sudden, you can have very rapid growth from that. 

And I would point out that back in the spring, this looked like 

a standard Ebola outbreak, and it, in fact, was burning out. I 

mean, we all thought it was going away as a problem because the 

numbers got so small, and then it just exploded in urban Monrovia. 

So we cannot say with confidence that despite the huge success we 

have had in the last 6 to 8 weeks at turning the tide in Liberia, 

that, in fact, we can be confident that we are not going to have an 

exponential outbreak in any of these settings in the first instance, 

which is why we are mounting a significant response through next 

56

year and why the emergency request provides the resources for 

that kind of a responsible, evidence-based response. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Do you know, can you estimate how many of these 

micro epidemics exist throughout the region? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, these are just clusters of cases, so, you know, 

there are as many as 20 independent clusters of cases in parts of 

rural Liberia. I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head, but 

I do know that the strategy developed is now to have really responsive systems that can go quickly stand up an Ebola treatment unit 

that is much smaller and more focused, probably less visible but 

highly important to rapid response. 

Mr. DEUTCH. And just, finally, before my time expires, there 

have been reports of an unrelated outbreak in Congo that has 

claimed at least 49 lives. Can you talk about that and your concerns about the possibility of that spreading? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, in the DRC, we have seen actually cases being 

handled quite effectively, and they have managed that. In Mali, 

there is now a case—cases that have come we think from Guinea 

into Mali. And there is a significant cluster of cases there that now 

needs to be dealt with as of yesterday. I am not aware of 49 cases 

in the first, right now in the DRC, unless that happened this morning, and I would have to——

Mr. DEUTCH. It is a report that I read this morning. 

Mr. SHAH. We will look into that. 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH [presiding]. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Florida, Mr. Yoho. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I appreciate you all being here. Let’s see. I think you just answered the question I had, Dr. Shah, about the number of outbreaks or the number of cases. Are they increasing or decreasing, 

in the last 6 to 8 weeks? 

Mr. SHAH. In Liberia, the number of new cases are decreasing, 

but the number—and in Sierra Leone and Guinea, they are increasing quite significantly. 

Mr. YOHO. All right. So we are seeing focal outbreaks? 

Mr. SHAH. I am sorry? 

Mr. YOHO. Focal outbreaks, we are seeing, small outbreaks? 

Mr. SHAH. Yeah. 

Mr. YOHO. What is the expected cost in the next year to treat 

and contain if things stay pretty static the way they are or, you 

know, the predicted growth of this, what would you predict that 

cost would be? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, the $6.2 billion request includes approximately 

$2 billion or so for the response in west Africa against the main 

element of the strategy, which is controlling the outbreak, and that 

will provide funding for personnel that need to be trained and deployed. It will provide funding for Ebola treatment units and community care centers, the logistics required to do that. And it will 

provide funding for the huge amount of product supply, personal 

protective equipment, oral rehydration solution, intravenous materials, to provide a large-scale response throughout that region. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. I am a veterinarian by background, and we 

deal with outbreaks all the time in animals. And we have got some 

57

commonsense things we do. And what I see is there is the fear factor from the Ebola outbreak, the tide of fear. And I know the news 

spreads this, and there is a lot of misconceptions by people without 

a medical background that think this is Al Pacino in that move 

with the virus coming out. And it is, it is a deadly virus, but yet 

it is a virus. We have got hundreds of years of virus, how to deal 

with these things and how to quarantine them. 

And Dr. West, you being a medical doctor also, the response that 

we are doing, the commonsense thing to me is when you have an 

outbreak, you have short-term things you do and you have longterm things that we should do. The short-term is the diagnostic, 

the treatment, the quarantine that we would do in an animal population. And we should do those same things in this, like travel restrictions. I think that is totally—should be acceptable. It shouldn’t 

be a political thing, and I would just like to hear your thoughts on 

travel restrictions. 

I know the Army is doing a great job on that. We know the incubation is 3 to 21 days. But, unfortunately, viruses don’t read the 

manual. I think they ought to extend that to 30 days just to be safe 

and do testing, you know, whether it is an ELISA test or an SN 

test or a PCR test, to do that. And I would like to hear your 

thoughts on that for the short-term attack on this virus. 

General WEST. Sir, thank you for the question. As far as travel 

restrictions, I really can’t comment specifically on that. I do concur 

with your thoughts on how to best tackle it as far as preventative 

measures once you recognize it to rapidly diagnose and treat; and 

then, long term, you know, put in measures to prevent, bolster the 

public health system so if there is another outbreak or similar, it 

can be identified early and then those treatment and isolation recommendations can be done early on. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. What I have seen here is we have got five hospital areas in the United States. I think we ought to have one hospital that is a quarantine area or treatment area instead of spreading it throughout the country. Just, again, from an epidemiological 

standpoint, it would make more sense to contain it in a smaller 

area. I know you are doing that in Africa. 

And on the long-term strategy—and this goes back to Dr. Shah, 

and I would like to get your opinion, too, Doctor. We have known 

about this virus since the 1970s. And we had the Marburg virus 

that broke out in Germany. It was rapidly contained. It is a relative of the Ebola virus in the same viral family. Yet we contained 

it very early because of the testing. And we have got vaccines that 

are on the shelves that have been approved—or they have been 

shown effective. They have not been approved—for over 10 years. 

Why have we not followed up since the role of our Government is 

to be prepared for the next epidemic or the pandemic, to be prepared with these vaccines. The money that we are spending in the 

research and development, why has that vaccine not been approved 

and ready to go so that when we diagnose and treat the individual 

and we do the quarantine, we can be vaccinating a population that 

is susceptible? Why has that not happened? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, Congressman, actually, the resources in the 

emergency request will actually allow——

58

Mr. YOHO. No. I want to know why it hasn’t happened because 

we have known about this since 1970. This is not a new virus. This 

is something we should have been prepared for as a government, 

and we have dumped billions of dollars into research and development. Why have we not done that? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, let me just describe one thing that is very specific to west Africa and the vaccines. The committee has supported 

the USAID to create something called the Global Development Lab. 

And through that, we have worked with Dr. Fauci at NIH and are 

accelerating the introduction of the vaccine in Liberia for rapid 

clinical phase II and III testing. That I believe is the Canadian vaccine. 

Mr. YOHO. We are starting at a point today. I mean, the horse 

is already out of the barn, and we have known the horse is out. 

We should have been prepared for this, and I look at your organization as something that should be ready, not just for this one but 

for the next one, too. That is foresight. That is oversight. We are 

doing hindsight. I know you guys will get control of this, and I look 

forward to helping you and assisting you on this. 

And with that, I am out of time, and I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

The Chair recognizes Mr. Higgins, the gentleman from New 

York. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

For Administrator Shah, the USAID coordinates the international response with the Department of Defense and State. And 

the United States is the principal responder in Liberia. It was stated at the outset of this hearing by the chairman that the objective 

is breaking the chain of transmission. You can’t do that without 

fundamentally dealing with the problems in the countries of origin, 

that being the inadequate hygiene and sanitation systems and also 

the lack of or the poor healthcare infrastructure. So specific to 

USAID in Liberia, what is being done specifically to address those 

issues, and is there a time frame within which those projects would 

be undertaken and completed? 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you, Congressman. 

I think really there are two ways to address that. One is in the 

context of our ongoing longer-term developmental investments in 

Liberia in particular, we have been working to build out their 

health system to improve access to water sanitation and hygiene 

and to, frankly, get a lot of kids in school. This is a country where 

58 percent of the population lives on a dollar and a quarter per 

day; 80 percent of total disposable income per person is spent on 

food. So when food prices go up, as they have almost doubled, you 

see children and women in particular going without enough adequate nutrition. We have been working on those issues and will 

continue to. 

In the context of this response, I believe that some of the rapid 

reduction in transmission we have seen in Liberia has come from 

those types of community interventions. The fact that, even when 

I was there, you wash your hands with chlorinated water before 

going into any building. People have stopped shaking hands and 

touching each other. The more that those behavioral practices become the new norm in rural communities, the safer those commuVerDate 0ct 09 2002 12:09 Feb 23, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00062 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 Z:\WORK\_FULL\111314\91450 SHIRL
59

nities will be from this outbreak, and, frankly, over the long-term, 

the more you will see a reduction in very deadly diarrheal disease 

that still, unfortunately, kill a lot of children who don’t need to die 

in these types of countries. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Like any health crisis, this one exacts an economic 

price on these communities as well. All three of these countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, were projected to grow pretty impressively. According to the World Bank, because of this crisis, the 

economic decline in those countries will go from anywhere between 

3 percent to 12 percent. Does this undermine the ability of those 

countries themselves to make investments toward alleviating this 

problem? 

Mr. SHAH. Absolutely. In fact, I think even the World Bank now 

believes that those initial 3 to 12 percent estimates are underestimates of the true consequence. The public budgets will be down 

anywhere from 20 to 40 percent. The economic activity will most 

likely contract by as much as a third. I had a chance to meet with 

business leaders in each of the three countries who described not 

being able to continue to employ their personnel and their staff and 

having largely ceased operations. Expatriate staff have often left 

the country. So it is a very difficult economic situation that will 

greatly compound our efforts over the course of the next year to get 

the epidemic under control. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Final question. Infectious diseases notoriously are 

unpredictable, meaning that the virus entering one person may be 

genetically different from the virus entering another person. We 

have been told repeatedly that you can only get Ebola through direct contact with bodily fluids. Could the Ebola virus mutate to become transmissible through the air? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, I think it is hard to say no to an event that is 

a potential event with a low likelihood of happening, but most of 

the experts we have consulted, and Dr. Fauci and others who have 

offered their guidance on this, suggest we have to watch for what 

the genetic mutations are, but that it is unlikely that this will become airborne in the short term. There are a very high number of 

mutation events because we have never before seen so much transmission of this particular virus, and so we don’t make any commitments on that. 

Mr. HIGGINS. It would seem to me that that is something that 

public health officials should be looking at very closely because a 

lot of this originated from rural areas. Now we are in cities where 

contact is much more prevalent, and the spread and the change in 

mutations is much more likely. 

So I yield back. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. 

Before yielding to Mr. Meadows, I want to thank Mr. Meadows. 

Meeting in the anteroom just a moment ago was the Foreign Minister of Sudan, Ali Ahmed Karti and Mr. Meadows led the effort 

that led to the release of Meriam Ibrahim, and I want to publicly 

thank him again for that extraordinary leadership. Hopefully, a 

dialogue will ensue with the Sudanese on religious freedom issues. 

Thank you, Mr. Meadows. 

The Chair recognizes, Mr. Meadows. 

60

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your kind words 

and certainly thank you for your efforts in leading on not only that 

particular issue but a number of humanitarian issues. 

And so I thank each one of you for your testimony here today. 

Dr. Shah, let me go to you. I know we have requested a lot of 

money. You feel like the plan that we have in place is a good one, 

and so I want to direct our attention and focus in on the ETU units 

and the diagnostic units because right now, it is my understanding 

there is only two diagnostic units that are put in the same proximity with the treatment units. And what we are seeing is a great 

delay with regards to the diagnostic side of things as they get to 

put in the warm units. Are we making a change to that? Will we 

be putting those diagnostic units along with the ETU units? 

Mr. SHAH. Thank you. I would just highlight three things. One 

is, on ETUs, we have, in fact, already scaled up the capacity of 

ETUs in all three countries. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Yeah. I am talking about specifically diagnostics, 

not ETUs. 

Mr. SHAH. Yeah. I think the labs—I think we have put in place 

now nine additional labs across the three countries in a certain 

amount of time. I think four or five are from DoD, and they have 

made a huge difference. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I understand that. My question specifically is why 

are we not co-placing those along the ETU units? Because what 

you have is you have people——

Mr. SHAH. You transport issues. 

Mr. MEADOWS. You have transport. You have got delays in terms 

of the diagnostics. You put them in warm zones. They could be 

with other infected patients. You have got just this whole laborious 

process. And we, with the most sophisticated healthcare system in 

the world, have found logistical problems with just a few patients 

here. Why would we not put the diagnostic units along with the 

ETU units, so we don’t have the cross contamination probabilities? 

Mr. SHAH. I think the real answer is we want to do that as much 

as possible. There are some constraints, and there is a conversation 

right now about how do we project out that lab capability. 

Mr. MEADOWS. So what would be those constraints? You have 

only got 2 of the 20 right now where they are co-located together 

in Liberia. 

Mr. SHAH. Right. So, for example, in Monrovia if you can get 

from site to site pretty quickly, you may not need to stand up labs 

at every one of the ETUs. And what might be the priority is getting 

more lab capacity that can project into rural communities and elsewhere. 

Mr. MEADOWS. That doesn’t make logistical sense. In your testimony just a few minutes ago you talked about malaria and how we 

have these potentials. So you have potentially a malaria patient 

who is coming into an area with other infected Ebola patients, who 

could be contracting Ebola, and yet time is not our friend here. So 

why would you not have the diagnostic units along with the ETU 

units? 

Mr. SHAH. I think we want to have that as much as possible. I 

will have the team figure out——

Mr. MEADOWS. So you haven’t addressed that? 

61

Mr. SHAH. Well, we have. We have actually—we are looking both 

at a whole range of——

Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Lumpkin, let me shift to you. You are building these units. Are you building diagnostic units along with the 

ETU units? 

Mr. LUMPKIN. At this juncture, there is more——

Mr. MEADOWS. Yes or no? 

Mr. LUMPKIN. I think it is more complex than that. You hit the 

nail on the head when you said it is a logistics challenge when you 

work this. So when you have more ETUs than you have diagnostic 

capabilities, sometimes it is better from a logistics perspective to 

centrally locate a diagnostic capability——

Mr. MEADOWS. And so it is better to wait 3 or 4 days——

Mr. LUMPKIN. No, no, no——

Mr. MEADOWS [continuing]. For the diagnostics, because that is 

what is happening. That is the intel that we are getting. They are 

having to wait 3 or 4 days to figure out whether they have got it 

and then travel a long distance to get there. So why would that be 

a logistical problem? If you are building these units, why would you 

not put the diagnostics along with the treatment unit? 

Mr. LUMPKIN. Because it takes longer to get a diagnostic capability in country to have a robust laboratory capability than it does 

to get an ETU running. To get it configured, trained and everybody 

in, it takes time. 

Mr. MEADOWS. So what you are saying is we are not going to collocate these. 

Mr. LUMPKIN. That isn’t what I am saying at all. I am saying, 

from my experience on the ground, the goal is always to get them 

as close as possible. But if you can’t get one at each one, if there 

are two ETUs that are 15 miles away, if you can get it in the middle, you do, in order to make that limited resource of these diagnostic capabilities go as far as possible. 

Mr. MEADOWS. So do you concur that is the best plan, Dr. Shah? 

Mr. SHAH. I think the best plan is to have as much laboratory 

capability as possible. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Well, we are asking for $7 billion here, and 

diagnostics—that that component of it is a very minute component 

of that. And so if you are asking for $7 billion, why could you not 

collocate? 

Mr. SHAH. We will—I will get back to you with a more specific 

answer about going forward, but right now, we have three that are 

collocated, one in Lofa County, one in Bong County, and one in 

Monrovia, and those collocations——

Mr. MEADOWS. Out of how many treatment units? 

Mr. SHAH. That are operational? I think seven are operational in 

that area right now. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Well, I show 20 ETU units in Liberia. Is that not 

correct? 

Mr. SHAH. They are not operational. You have seven operational 

ETUs. 

Mr. MEADOWS. So we have seven operational, three that are collocated——

Mr. SHAH. Three——

Mr. MEADOWS. But when the others come on line, they will——

62

Mr. SHAH. Our goal will be to get as much lab capacity projected, 

and we have a synchronization matrix. I will have the team go 

through and identify how many will have collocated——

Mr. MEADOWS. Okay, I am out of time, but I would ask you to 

get back to this committee on why we can’t do that. 

Mr. SHAH. It is an excellent point. Both the assistant secretary 

and I agree with the basic point. 

Mr. MEADOWS. All right. Thank you. 

I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Meadows. 

I know Ambassador Williams has to depart at noon for a flight. 

Thank you for your leadership and your participation today. 

Ambassador WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate 

that. 

Mr. SMITH. I would like to now recognize the ranking member of 

the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International 

Organizations Subcommittee, a woman with whom I work very 

closely with and am very proud to do so, Ms. Bass of California. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

I have several questions, most of them are unrelated, but I am 

just going to go through a little list. For Dr. Shah, you were mentioning changes in protective gear, and I was just wondering if we 

have been able to improve the temperature monitor. You know, I 

know that scan is not that accurate, and so I am wondering if there 

is any improvements to that. 

I also wanted to ask, I know that UNICEF has reported that 

there are nearly 4,000 orphaned children, and I was just wondering 

if you could give us, anybody on the panel could give us a status 

report as to what is happening with the children, and then one of 

the—part of the consequences of the epidemic has been an impact 

on the economy, which my colleague was mentioning, and I wanted 

to ask specifically about the cocoa industry in Cote d’Ivoire that 

hasn’t even been hit by Ebola, but yet it has been impacted severely. So maybe various panelists could answer this question, 

whoever would like to. 

Mr. SHAH. Let me try. On the protective equipment, one of the 

things we have done through our global development lab is a grand 

challenge on Ebola, and we have seen more than 1,200 proposals 

come in, including I think more than 50 percent of proposals are 

for improved protective equipment, so, in the next 2 days, they are 

actually assessing the top 25 proposals. This has been a real focus 

for the President, and Motorola has been working with us on a 

temperature monitor for the suits, and as you point out, we are 

also working on cooling systems for the suits, breathability, and 

improved infection control. 

Ms. BASS. That is great. Actually, I wasn’t thinking about that. 

I was thinking about that handheld scan. 

Mr. SHAH. Oh, the handheld scanner, yes. 

Ms. BASS. That you have testified and other people have previously that it is not that great. 

Mr. SHAH. Yeah, they are a little low I think. We are looking into 

that. And there are, I think, a series of existing products that are 

better than what they are using in west Africa now that we will 

be able to help support and deploy. 

63

On orphanages, we have and are conducting a review. In particular, when I was in Liberia, I visited an orphanage, and not just 

the increase in the numbers, but also the lack of access to food, 

which has been the main constraint for those orphanages, so we 

are expanding the Food for Peace investment as part of this effort 

going forward and starting with looking at vulnerable populations, 

including orphans, to make sure they have enough food. 

And on cocoa and the industry, it is true across the board, you 

know, shipping costs have gone through the roof. You have seen a 

70-percent reduction in commercial flights to the region. Transportation is much, much, much more difficult, so any business, local 

or export oriented, is facing really severe challenges, which is why 

we are launching a major regional Feed the Future effort to get 

these industries operational again, and it is one of the reasons we 

seek the Congress’ support for the Feed the Future authorizing legislation to really allow this to be successful. 

Ms. BASS. I think it is important that we talk about that because 

it might be, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member, it might be 

something that we could really try to expedite during the lame 

duck. I was going to ask you about the transfer authority and how 

soon you needed that to happen. If those are priorities, maybe we 

could get them done. 

Mr. SHAH. I know we would appreciate the transfer authority as 

soon as possible. This is a very fast moving epidemic, and just as 

we note, I think we are every day learning more about which communities need what type of support. And it is not just immediate 

disease control but also dealing with these secondary consequences 

of the epidemic to avoid kind of state collapse and fragility from becoming the defining reality of all three places. 

Ms. BASS. You know, I spoke a couple of weeks ago with the 

President of Liberia, and she took major issue with the numbers 

that are projected, and I was wondering if you had anything to say 

about that. The other thing that she raised was that they had just 

celebrated, and this was 2 or 3 weeks ago, they had just celebrated 

the 1,000th person in Liberia who survived. We are not really talking about that; we are only talking about the death rates. But what 

about the survival rates in countries, in particular, in Liberia? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, I have spoken with President Sirleaf a lot as 

well, and she makes the point, and I fully agree, that we should 

be reporting current active cases and investing in real time data 

systems, which we are doing, to get better information about how 

many active cases are there. What you read in the press when they 

say 14,000 cases includes people who have died, unfortunately. It 

also includes people who have survived, and then that number 

doesn’t really give you a sense of where is the immediate crisis because it is this big aggregated number over time and geography. 

So we have a team that we sent a whole team of epidemiologists 

from Johns Hopkins, from CDC, and we have a group going to help 

give first responders the right handheld devices to collect immediate data and reflect it in real time, and President Sirleaf I think 

values the fact that we want to stay focused on real data and information as opposed to modeled predictions that might or might not 

send the right message to folks. 

64

Ms. BASS. In closing, if you could give us some better numbers, 

it would be great, especially to disaggregate the 14,000 would be 

great. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bass. 

The Chair recognizes Mr. Clawson, the gentleman from Florida. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Okay. When I review you all’s bios and accomplishments, I am very impressed with what you have done for our 

country, not just now, but leading up until now, and you could have 

done a lot of other things with these kind of capabilities, made a 

little bit more money, but you chose to serve our country, and I 

want to express to you deep appreciation for that. 

I also think that helping people is never—nonpartisan, and so I 

am here to help, and I heard your earlier question, I heard I think 

it was Representative Sherman earlier say, ask if you got everything you need, and I heard the answer being yes, so I look at the 

group sitting in front of me and that answer, and I feel a little bit 

better, but anything that I can do or that we can do to help because 

we are always interested in doing so. 

I do have a couple questions that you all can help me with. Number one is when I look at the other countries in the region in Western Africa, it seems to me, if we back up a step, that this is a disease that preys on lack of health infrastructure and also particularly dangerous if there is an urban area where people are living 

close to each other. If you look at kind of when we looked at doctors 

per, you know, 100,000 residents or inhabitants in the other countries—Senegal, Mali, these kind of places, Ivory Coast—it is not a 

lot better than where we have an outbreak now. So am I drawing 

a correct conclusion in saying we have similar circumstances in 

neighboring countries that could lead to a crisis? And then secondarily to that, do we have enough of a firewall, or are we close to 

more disasters coming here? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, first, Congressman, let me thank you for your 

initial comments and also point out that in my response to Representative Sherman, I did not intend to indicate that we have 

what we need. We desperately need these emergency funding resources. My team is very focused on the fact that we will literally 

be shutting down famine prevention programs in places like South 

Sudan if we don’t get these resources. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Okay. 

Mr. SHAH. Because we have overspent aggressively and quickly 

because of the nature of the epidemic and to keep it from getting 

to be in an exponential phase in order to power this response. We 

also do seek the authorities and support for the food reform package, including Feed the Future authorization. 

In terms of the global health security, I would just note I think 

you are exactly right that the neighboring countries have weak and 

fragile health systems. Where they have been successful, like Nigeria, it has been in part because of great leadership there and also 

strong support from CDC and others that have helped them do an 

extraordinary amount of contact tracing fast. But we are looking 

right now at cases in Mali. 

You can’t really build firewalls. I was in Senegal, and they said, 

well, we are cutting off the border with Guinea. All that really does 

is people cross the border and then don’t get traced and are not 

65

part of a system where you can identify who is crossing and what 

their temperature is and are they at risk, and they get lost in the 

population. So it is very hard to build a firewall in west Africa 

across west African countries. 

Mr. CLAWSON. So should we have more resources going into 

these neighboring countries? 

Mr. SHAH. Absolutely. And this emergency request includes resources for a set of activities we call global health security, where 

we have worked together with 43 other countries, including other 

countries that will provide funding, so we can co-invest in building 

global health security in the region, and it is important that we do 

that now to protect ourselves for the long term. 

Mr. LUMPKIN. If I may add just one piece about the resourcing 

and having what we need to do, the business we need to do here 

and eradicate Ebola is that the defense committees were very kind 

to us in the end of Fiscal Year 2014 that allowed us to do a reprogramming within the Department of Defense of unobligated 

Overseas Contingency Operations funds of $1 billion, so we could 

put against this requirement in order to make sure we are fully 

supporting USAID. So the Congress has been very generous. This 

has allowed us to get where we are today and to continue our support over the coming months. 

Mr. CLAWSON. One more question relative to support. Are our allies doing enough, and does the U.N. give quotas to folks in Europe? I mean, I know we are asking, but if you look at where the 

money comes from, it seems like most of it comes from us, and are 

specific requests made to our allies that have historic relationships 

in Africa? 

Mr. SHAH. Yes, and those requests have been made by President 

Obama directly with counterpart heads of state. They have been 

made by Secretary Kerry, by Secretary Burwell, I have called my 

counterparts regularly, and the result of that is we have seen now 

$800 million committed from a range of other donors, and we welcome that, and we are tracking to make sure that it actually arrives and it is not just a verbal commitment. 

In terms of the U.N., the UNMEER mission is assessed based on 

contribution percentages, so it is an allocation, and the standard 

U.N. percentages will apply to the cost of that mission. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Thank you. 

Yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Clawson, thank you very much. 

The Chair recognizes Mr. Cicilline. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you to the witnesses for your expertise and for sharing your experiences with the committee today. I think it is very 

important that you have established clearly that the United States 

has a national security interest and a humanitarian responsibility 

to respond to this outbreak and that the best way to respond to 

this, the best way to protect against Ebola here within our own 

borders is of course to work with our international partners to help 

save lives, strengthen the economies of our trading partners, maintain political stability in these countries and stop Ebola at its 

source, and I thank all of you for the work that you are doing and 

the agencies you represent. 

66

I also want to just take a moment to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of our local and international health workers 

and military personnel who have really helped to combat this outbreak. Experts have stated that the greatest barrier to ending the 

outbreak in west Africa is an insufficient number of health workers. And today I will introduce a resolution along with my colleague Congresswoman Bass expressing a sense of Congress that 

health workers responding to the Ebola crisis deserve our profound 

gratitude and deep respect. And I just want to say that here at this 

hearing. 

Dr. Shah, I want to just start with you. I want to build a little 

bit on Mr. Clawson’s question, but rather than building a firewall, 

I about a year ago with Mr. Kinzinger visited Liberia and was 

struck by the lack of a healthcare system infrastructure and can 

only imagine what the impact is on combating this outbreak with 

that kind of a frail, very fragile healthcare system. So as you think 

about this global health security, do we—is the United States really helping to lead kind of a comprehensive plan to kind of assist 

countries in developing this capacity after this epidemic is concluded, recognizing that is a huge undertaking, but, you know, are 

there some strategies that we should be looking for to invest in 

that will help build the capacity not only in the three affected countries but in the region and countries that are particularly vulnerable to an outbreak of an infectious disease? 

Mr. SHAH. Well, thank you, Congressman, and thank you for 

your resolution in particular. That has special meaning for our 

folks on the ground and our partners, and we really want to say 

thank you for your leadership. 

In terms of global health security over time, President Obama actually started this effort as an international partnership before the 

Ebola outbreak, and frankly, before the outbreak, President Sirleaf 

had a very coherent plan for training, hiring, and deploying a few 

thousand community health workers, building out laboratory capacity, improving the physical infrastructure of the more than 460 

primary care facilities throughout the country, many of which we 

have helped build over the years and stock and supply, and so this 

has been devastating to the system initially because of all of those 

initial healthcare worker infections and people no longer coming to 

work and the consequence of that. 

But we do have clear plans in country for what it means to build 

health system security. It builds off the baseline of our global 

health investments that have helped to build out this infrastructure. And one of the elements that was not considered before, because it was pre-Ebola, that will now be considered is how we 

make sure we get protective equipment and training to all of those 

primary healthcare workers that, you know, previously wouldn’t 

have been thinking about Ebola but now need to make sure they 

can protect themselves in a setting like that. 

The last thing I would say about this is we have worked with 43 

other countries. At the end of September, there was a meeting at 

the White House. Those countries came and made pledges and 

commitments, so this will take a while to build into the system but 

is I think particularly important given the crisis that we are dealing with right now. 

67

Mr. CICILLINE. So one of the other things I wanted to follow up 

on is the number of young children that are being orphaned as a 

result of this outbreak and whether we are developing strategies to 

help deal with this real crisis in terms of psychological services, 

placement, et cetera, particularly in Liberia. 

Mr. SHAH. Uh-huh. Yes, we absolutely will. This emergency funding request and the transfer authority will give us the capability 

to deal with this crisis at scale, and, you know, it is a devastating 

reality. I have seen children who are unable to communicate or be 

with their mother because she is infected and in a treatment unit, 

and they are separated, so it is a tragic reality of this epidemic, 

and these resources will help us address that. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you. 

Mr. Lumpkin, I just have one question. It appears that the Department of Defense has a policy in place now for a 21-day quarantine, regardless of the risk because these are individuals who are 

not having direct contact with patients. That protocol seems to be 

at odds or at least not the same protocol as the CDC. So is that 

correct? And why is the Department of Defense doing a quarantine 

for people that may not be at any risk and certainly are, some of 

them, not even having direct contact with patients? It seems an 

odd practice that is quite different from the CDC protocol, and I 

would love Dr. Shah and Mr. Lumpkin both to respond to that if 

you would. 

Mr. LUMPKIN. Well, Secretary Hagel approved the 21-day controlled monitoring program that you just discussed at the recommendation of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well 

as the service chiefs—senior leadership in uniform, and it was done 

for operational reasons based on how we reinnervate our force, and 

I will let Major General Lariviere kind of go over the guiding principles with, as far as the service chiefs and the chairman. 

General LARIVIERE. Thank you, sir. And, again, it was an operational decision, not a medical decision, and I will let General West 

talk about the medical advice that was given to the chairman 

which was very similar to the CDC guidance, but because we have 

got a young and large population, youngest and largest responding 

to this epidemic, the chairman felt because of the unique role and 

responsibility of the military and the scale of deployment and the 

responsibility he has for the personnel and for the families that 

this was a prudent measure to take, again based on the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs, recognizing that it is not—it is 

more conservative than the CDC guidelines. 

Mr. SHAH. I would just add for USAID employees and staff and 

partners, you know, we are following the CDC guidelines that do 

involve direct active monitoring for people that come back from the 

region and more extensive measures if there is a specific exposure 

per the guidelines. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you. 

I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. Keating of Massachusetts. 

Mr. KEATING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ranking member for 

having this important hearing. I want to thank our witnesses, not 

only their own personal involvement but on behalf of their agencies 

68

for the fine work they have done and how important it is worldwide 

and for our country here. 

One of the most concerning reports of the impact of the outbreak 

in the region is the marginalization of members of vulnerable populations, including the LGBT community. In the Liberian capital of 

Monrovia, for example, we have heard numerous incidents of harassment, physical altercation, direct targeting of individuals based 

on their sexual orientation after some religious leaders claimed the 

outbreak was a punishment from God. This not only affects these 

vulnerable populations but also our overall ability to control and 

stem this outbreak. 

How are USAID and the State Department working to ensure 

that the LGBT community is receiving unobstructed care and how 

are your agencies working to protect all vulnerable groups from 

discrimination based on gender, disability or sexual orientation? 

And I guess, Administrator Shah, you could respond to that first 

I guess. 

Mr. SHAH. Well, thank you for the question. It is an important 

issue in particular because of, as you identify in a context of fear 

and lack of information, prejudices can often become defining of behavior, and so, for that purpose and because it is central to the epidemic response, we have had a widespread public messaging campaign throughout all three countries to communicate Ebola is real, 

how you get it, what it is not, and to avoid those concerns. In addition, our Disaster Assistance Response Team has a special focus on 

integrating protection concerns for vulnerable populations, including LGBT populations into the grants and programs they are pursuing because this is such an important issue, and it will continue 

to be our policy, especially with respect to how the services are provided, that everyone has equal access to be a beneficiary of our programs and that this response is driven by science and evidence and 

not prejudice and fear. 

Mr. KEATING. Great. 

Do any of the other witnesses want to comment on that? No? 

With that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back my time, and again 

thank the chair, ranking member, and the members of the committee and our witnesses for their time. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much to our very distinguished witnesses for your leadership, for providing insight and counsel to the 

committee. We all, on both sides of the aisle, deeply appreciate it 

and look forward to working with you going forward. 

The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:24 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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